Awarded for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology published in a three- to five-year period. Established through the Daniel Giraud Elliot Fund by gift of Miss Margaret Henderson Elliot.

Recipients:

Jonathan B. Losos (2012)For his novel and penetrating studies of adaptive radiation in vertebrates, notably his comprehensive study of Anolis lizards in tropical America, as summarized in his recent book, Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles.

Jennifer A. Clack (2008)For studies of the first terrestrial vertebrates and the water-to-land transition, as illuminated in her book Gaining Ground.

Rudolf A. Raff (2004)For creative accomplishments in research, teaching, and writing (especially The Shape of Life) that led to the establishment of a new field, evolutionary developmental biology.

Geerat J. Vermeij (2000)For his extracting major generalizations about biological evolution from the fossil record, by feeling details of shell anatomy that other scientists only see.

John Terborgh (1996)For his research on the ecology, sociobiology, biodiversity, and plant phenology of the tropics, and for his 1992 book, Diversity and the Tropical Rain Forest.

George C. Williams (1992)For his seminal contributions to current evolutionary thought, including the importance of natural selection and adaptation, and the understanding of sexual reproduction, social behavior, senescence, and disease.

Jon Edward Ahlquist and Charles G. Sibley (1988)For their application of DNA hybridization techniques to bird classification which revolutionized taxonomy by showing at last how to distinguish evolutionary relationships from convergent similarities.

Raymond Carroll Osburn (1950)In recognition of his studies of Bryozoa, particularly for the volume on Bryozoa of the Pacific Coast of America, part 1, published by the University of Southern California.

Arthur Cleveland Bent (1949)For the 17th volume in his series on the Life Histories of the North American Birds, published by the United States National Museum.

Henry B. Bigelow (1948)For his contributions to marine zoology, particularly for his part as senior author in the volume Fishes of the Western North Atlantic.

Robert Broom (1946)For his volume, The South Africa Fossil Ape-Men, The Australopithecinae, which was published on January 31, 1946, by the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria.

Sewall Wright (1945)For his fundamental work dealing with the genetics of evolutionary processes--a program based on work over a long period, including his paper "The Differential Equation of the Distribution of Gene Frequencies."

George G. Simpson (1944)For his work, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, Columbia University Press, 1944.